____________________________MICHAEL CUFFARO'S_______________________________ _______________________________HOUSERULES___________________________________ (written by Michael Cuffaro) (with special thanks to James R. Hoffa) (dedicated to the late great George Herman Ruth) (who would have hit 70 if he had the extra 8 games) (..probably would have hit 80 had it been an expansion year..) ============================================================================ All rules conform to the 1971 Games Research edition rulebook, unless stated otherwise below. 1) COUNTRY ASSIGNMENTS: I'll accept a list of preferences from each player. Players who do not submit preferences will randomly be assigned a country from whatever's left over. 2) ENDING THE GAME: The game can end in one of three ways: a) one player gains 18 supply centers and is declared the winner. b) all players vote unanimously to concede the game to one player. c) all players vote unanimously to end the game in a draw. A draw need not include all survivors. 3) PRESS: a) White (player-to-player press): As per the rules (under IV. DIPLOMACY of the rulebook), anything goes. A warning, however: Any person who decides to take this game out of its proper context with personal threats, slander, libel, transmission of computer viruses, etc. will be immediately expelled from the game and reported to the list monitor for possible expulsion from the list. b) Grey (public press sent by someone directly involved in the game): Public press is encouraged. It may be sent at any time, i.e, It doesn't necessarily have to be posted at result time. If you wish, press can be sent between moves. The only condition being that you send it to me first (in which case I will post it on the general list). If you wish to bypass me, however then that is still acceptable, but only if you limit your post to those players directly involved in the game, and/or the appropriate CHAT list. *DO NOT* send press directly to the game list. When you send your press to me, include the game # in the subject heading, and then in the body, let me know exactly when you want me to post it, i.e. right away, on the next result, two turns from now, etc. If you don't specify, I'll post it with the next turn's results by default. c) Black (public press sent by someone NOT directly involved in the game): Black press is also allowed, but MUST be sent through me (it wouldn't be black if it wasn't). Apart from that, rules for sending Black Press conform to the above rules for White/Gray press. 4) CIVIL DISORDER a) With the exception of countries with 2 or less supply centers remaining, this is a no-NMR game, so civil disorder does not apply. It works like this: If a player fails to submit orders for a given turn, I will announce to the board that there has been an NMR and privately ask the offending player to please send me his orders. He will then have 48 hours to do so. If he does not respond, the game will be put on hold while a replacement is found. The turn will then be REPLAYED. b) I won't set a strict limit on the number of NMRs a player may have in a game. There is no "2-NMRs and you're out" rule or anything similar. That does not mean, however, that I will not replace a repeat-offender. It will depend on the frequency of NMRs from that player and the circumstances at the time, etc. Basically I will use my judgement. c) Any player who, in the course of this game, has been eliminated/expelled (from this game) is not eligible to be a replacement (in this game). However, a player who voluntarily leaves the game may return as a replacement at a later date if he wishes and if all other players in the game unanimously agree. d) A player may not "swap" countries. I.e. he cannot abandon his country to become the leader of some other country that is in need of a replacement. 5) TIME FRAME: a) The official deadlines will be posted with every turn's results. However, the REAL deadlines are when I sit down to adjucate. E.g. if the deadline is 12:00PM, and I sit down to adjucate at 5:00PM, then orders sent to me at 4:00PM are still valid. Please note, though, that I am just as likely to adjucate 15 minutes after the deadline as I am to adjucate 5 hours after the deadline. And don't depend on my habits! Just because 99% of the time I adjucate at 5PM doesn't mean that today I won't decide to do it at 12:04PM. b) Turns will be on a weekly basis, more or less. I will usually give about 5 days for Spring/Fall, and 2 days for Summer/Winter, though this is flexible, and can be lengthened or shortened (within reason) depending on the circumstances. After a few moves, a pattern might emerge, i.e. turns due every wednesday, or something like that, but I won't carve anything in stone. If you need an extension for any (non-game related) reason, let me know at least 24 hours prior to the deadline. b) To save time and to allow the game to flow more smoothly, Fall retreats and Winter adjustments will always by default be adjucated together. I realize, though, that there are some circumstances in which it may be desireable to seperate them. In such cases, it is up to YOU, as a player, to let me know that you want them separated. Just let me know and it will be done. c) I may or may not send a deadline reminder. Whether one is issued or not, I expect orders to be in on time. d) Turn results will usually be posted within 2 - 12 hours of the deadline. If for any reason, I have no choice but to post results more than 24 hours after the deadline, I will let you know i) that the results will be late ii) exactly (within a few hours) when the results will be posted. 6) VOTING: Votes for draws/concessions may be called by any player at any time during the game. Draw/concession proposals must be UNANIMOUS to succeed. If I receive no vote from a player with regard to one of these proposals, I will assume that to be a YES vote. 7) WRITING ORDERS NOTE: proxy orders are NOT allowed. As per the rulebook (VII. 4. THE MECHANICS OF WRITING ORDERS) and the DPTG. This is a very subjective rule, so I'll just state a couple of suggestions: a) write out the full province name. It's less risky. If you do this, then you can ignore b), d), e), and f). b) NEVER use 'Nor' as an abbreviation. I may accept it if it's ABSOLUTELY clear what you intend, but don't take the risk. My own suggestions for abbreviations are: Nwy for Norway, Nrg or NwS for Norwegian Sea, and Nth for North Sea. c) No unit designation (i.e. army or fleet), or even the wrong unit designation will not by itself invalidate an order. d) It's not necessary to include a foreign country designation when ordering to support/convoy that country's unit, but for my benefit, I'd appreciate it if you did. Note that specifying the wrong country will not (by itself) invalidate the order. e) Try to use different abbreviations for Tyrolia and Tyrhennian Sea, Liverpool and Livonia, etc. I will usually accept Liv for Liverpool or Tyr for Tyrolia, but not always, so be careful. e.g. use Tya and Tyn.. Lpl and Liv.. or anything that distinguishes them from each other. f) In general, any order that is CLEARLY AMBIGUOUS (i.e. that admits of two or more meanings) will be considered to be invalid. NOTE: I do not use DIPLO or any similar adjucating tool. All orders will be adjucated by hand. 8) GAMEMASTER ERRORS: If I make a mistake during adjucation (yes, it does happen), then it is the players' responsibility to notify me BEFORE the next deadline. Once that deadline has passed, those mistakes become OFFICIAL, no matter how ridiculous they are.